Facilities manager to oversee Marion's Town House project

MARION — Selectmen have named the town's new facilities manager to head the project to renovate or replace the Town House.

MICHAEL J. DECICCO

MARION — Selectmen have named the town's new facilities manager to head the project to renovate or replace the Town House.

Shaun Cormier will serve as the town hall's "owner's project manager" in a move to provide more local control over the options to address the circa-1877 building's decaying and crowded conditions. Voters at the 2012 Town Meeting rejected hiring an outsider manager and instead formed a Town Hall Feasibility Study Committee that compiled its own list of town hall alternatives.

Town Administrator Paul Dawson, who recommended Cormier's appointment, said the next step should be re-forming a building study committee to oversee the rest of the project. He invited local people to apply.

Dawson said the town needs to make use of the depth and breadth of talented people who live in town. Selectmen agreed to a committee of seven members and encouraged those interested in volunteering to apply at the Town House.

Last April, the feasibility committee presented three options, all of which preserve the oldest part of the building. The first option is to renovate and reorganize the entire building to provide modern functional space for town hall operations and other town functions as space permits.

Option 2 is to renovate, reorganize and modernize only the circa-1877 main entrance portion that faces Front Street. The circa-1890 portion that faces Main Street and includes the selectmen's meeting room would be demolished and a new structure built there.

The third option is to build a new town office building on another site and then explore options for changing the use of the current town hall that could include selling it to a developer.

A public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Music Hall on the sewer system and roadway improvement project planned for Ryder Lane, South Street, Old Landing Road and part of Spring Street.

The town is the midst of a 10-year, five-phase $18 million project to update the road infrastructure in the core village area. Phase IA, costing $5.2 million, will start in the areas of Ryder Lane, South Street and Spring Street with repairing 800 feet of sewer and 4,500 feet of drainage, paving 3,800 feet of roadway, and addressing the flooding problem at Ryder and Spring.